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Getting 

The  Missionary’s 
Point  gf  View 

THE  REAL  MEANING 
OF  RETRENCHMENT 

by 

Howard  B.  Grose,  D.D. 


American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society 
Ford  Building,  Boston,  Mass. 


HE  Missionary  sat  in  deep 
thought.  The  look  on 
his  face  was  sad  beyond 
expression.  In  his  hand 
he  held  a  letter  which  he 
had  just  been  reading.  Evidently  it 
had  brought  him  disquieting  news. 
Many  minutes  he  sat  motionless.  Sud¬ 
denly  he  fell  upon  his  knees  and 
began  to  pray : 

‘  ‘  O  God,  Merciful  Father  in 
Heaven,  have  pity  upon  my  poor 
people  I  Help  me  for  their  salves 
to  bear  this  stroke.  Teach  me 
whal  to  sap  to  them.  O  God, 
spare  them  this  trouble.  Open 
the  way.  Send  Thy  Spirit  upon 
the  homeland,  that  this  great  sor¬ 
row  may  not  engulf  us.  How 
long,  O  Lord,  how  long?  ’ ' 

When  he  rose,  the  lines  of  care 
were  deepened,  and  the  buoyancy  of 
manner  was  gone.  He  acted  like  an 
old  man  stricken  with  palsy,  yet  he 
was  in  middle  age  and  fullness  of  his 
powers.  He  had  come  to  the  crisis 
in  his  faith. 

Y es,  after  all  these  years  of  Christian 
belief  and  life  and  service  in  the  mission 


field,  he  was  now  meeting  his  hardest 
spiritual  test.  The  confidence  he  had 
reposed  in  the  church  seemed  slipping 
from  beneath  his  feet.  More  than 
that,  the  confidence  he  had  known  as 
a  servant  of  God  —  the  reality  of  his 
own  personal  faith  —  seemed  shaken 
by  this  new  experience.  It  was  the 
critical  hour. 

What  had  brought  it  upon  him? 
What  was  in  the  letter  received  that 
hour  from  the  Rooms  of  the  Foreign 
Society  in  Boston  that  had  stricken 
him  as  swiftly  and  pitilessly  as  a  jungle 
fever  or  the  plague  ? 

The  letter  was  full  of  tenderness 
and  sympathy,  of  personal  regard,  of 
brotherly  kindness.  The  Secretary 
had  done  everything  in  his  power  to 
soften  the  stroke.  But  he  was  com¬ 
pelled  to  say  that  the  Baptists  had  not 
given  enough  to  meet  the  budget,  that 
the  debt  was  now  very  heavy,  and 
that  Retrenchment  was  inevitable. 
The  Board  recognized  the  justice  of 
his  plea  for  a  helper,  but  not  only 
must  refuse  that,  but  did  not  see  how 
his  own  work  could  be  maintained 


while  he  was  on  leave.  Perhaps  he 
could  suggest  a  way,  etc. 

*  *  *  * 

So  this  was  the  outcome  of  his  long 
years  of  self-sacrifice.  Worn  out,  ab¬ 
solutely  needing  change  of  climate,  he 
must  leave  his  field  without  a  leader, 
when  the  demands  were  greater  than 
ever.  The  pleas  from  the  out-stations 
had  been  so  pitiful  that  they  had  taken 
his  last  ounce  of  nerve  force.  He  had 
dreamed  of  reenforcement,  and 
awakened  to  RETRENCHMENT ! 

The  fateful  word  burned  itself  into 
his  brain.  Oh,  if  only  the  church 
members  at  home  could  know  what 
that  word  meant  to  the  missionary  on 
the  field,  surely  they  would  never 
allow  it  to  be  heard  again  !  Had  they 
ever  practiced  Retrenchment?  The 
last  report  said  sixty-four  cents  a  year 
per  member  for  foreign  missions  —  yet 
the  field  work  must  be  crippled !  His 
people  must  be  left  — 

HIS  PEOPLE!  That  was  the 
crushing  thought.  It  was  not  merely 
that  they  should  be  left  without  a 
shepherd  ;  but  HOW  COULD  HE 


EXPLAIN  TO  THEM  ?  What 
could  he  say  for  the  Baptists  of 
America,  living  in  the  Christian  land 
of  liberty  and  light  ?  How  could  he 
save  the  faith  of  his  people  in  Christian¬ 
ity,  when  Christians  knew  how  mil¬ 
lions  of  the  heathen  were  dying  without 
knowledge  of  a  Saviour,  yet  could 
not  give  one  hundred  cents  a  year  to 
send  the  gospel  to  them  ? 

Again  he  sank  on  his  knees : 

"Father,  forgive  them,  they  know 
not  what  they  do!" 

*  *  *  * 

They  found  him  as  he  had  fallen. 
Providence  spared  him  the  humiliation 
of  explanation.  His  death  might  save 
his  people’s  faith.  For  him  it  was  not 
Retrenchment  but  Enlargement ! 

—  Reprinted  from  "Missions  ”  for  March,  1912. 


1004-1  Ed.-25M-Jan.,  1913. 


Whosoever  shall  call  upon  the  name 
of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved.  How 
then  shall  they  call  on  him  in  whom 
they  have  not  believed  ?  and  how 
shall  they  believe  in  him  whom  they 
have  not  heard  ?  and  how  shall  they 
hear  Without  a  preacher  ?  And  how 
shall  they  preach,  except  they  be  sent  ? 

—  Romans  10:  13  •  15. 


maaSad 


...  •. 


